Quotes from Catriona Gray

Social media has definitely revolutionized or transformed the world of pageantry, and not just pageantry, but any social cause that we like to lend our voice to, how we inform each other, how we connect.

I'm very mindful that I am representing the Philippines, so I cannot voice an opinion that contradicts that of our leader, Pres. Duterte.

Philippines, what an amazing honor it has been to carry your name across my chest and to embody you in all aspects.

Seeing lights being put up along the street and these colored lanterns called parols being put up at people's houses makes Christmas in Philippines magical.

Us Filipinos love Christmas so much that we have the longest Christmas season in the world.

It's actually one of my dreams to have my own album. My music genre is dark pop.

I am a creative person.

I was a very quiet, shy child. I just became quite talkative in high school, in Grade 10 onwards.

It's just so funny that when I was growing up, I was very much of an Australian. I just thought it was funny that there was this war, like, 'No, she's ours, she's practically a Miss Australia.' But I am a Miss Philippines.

I think Miss Universe is wonderful platform that we promote diversity and women empowerment. Why? Because we are achieved women who have stories, who have passions, who have careers.

My course is about really working on a sheet of music. You work out the chords, which note complements the other, and how they will make the feeling of tension, the feeling of resolution. It's all about harmonization. That's more of the theory of notation and everything rather than practical. I don't play any instrument.

Once I started music, it just was fulfilling in a way that everything else wasn't.

My dad is 20 years older than my mom. Growing up, I felt like he knew everything. I felt like, for every question I had, he had an answer.

Being a beauty queen was never on my radar.

Let's cultivate an environment, not just in beauty pageants but in society in general, where we argue like we're right but listen like we're wrong.

I love working with children because, as an only child, I grew up always wishing for siblings.

I think we are moving to that place where we are being celebrated for our character, our inside, our wit. I think that's the direction we should go because that's what defines you as a person, not a number on a scale.

People should debate. They shouldn't be afraid to talk. You should listen to what other people think and how they make decisions. There should be an exchange of ideas and opinions because that's how we learn.

I don't have the habit of asking money from my parents.

I work a lot in the slums of Tondo, Manila, and the life there is poor and very sad. And I've always taught to myself to look for the beauty of it and look in the beauty of the faces of the children and to be grateful.

There is that whole realization that I'm not just speaking to Filipinos anymore: I'm speaking to a global audience.

I'm constantly trying to redefine what being a beauty queen is.

I just feel like a Filipina, a Filipino woman, and it just so happens that when I was growing up, I was very much an Australian, and I think you can be both.

To be a Miss World is to carry a burning torch. It is like action carried out by one to illuminate the lives of many.